By Monday afternoon, 33.46% of people on the electoral role had already voted.
This dwarfs voting returns for neighbouring councils, with Invercargill City Council at 25.46% and Southland District Council at 27.47% at the time of writing.
The numbers also reflect an increase in turnout from 30.3% in 2022 and 28.26% in 2019.
The highly contested election in 2022 led to the mayor of 18 years, Tracy Hicks, being ousted by Ben Bell, who was only 23 years old at the time, by only eight votes.
Mr Bell is now facing a challenger in former councillor Nicky Davis.
A competitive race for district-wide and Gore ward seats, which featured a lot of community participation in ‘‘meet the candidates" sessions, has piqued voter interest.
Deputy electoral officer Frances Shepherd said, in a statement, it was critical to get involved with local democracy.
"We’ve still got three and a-half days until the polls close, so now is not the time to sit back.
"Even if you are happy with the status quo, it’s important to vote. As we know, every vote counts.”
The council introduced several initiatives to make it easier to return voting papers in the district.
This included visits to Gore’s rest homes, clubrooms and a local bowling club tournament, hosting drop-in sessions at local libraries, and a drive-through voting paper drop-off at the council’s Fairfield St carpark.
Eight orange voting bins were also placed around various locations in Gore and Mataura.
Mrs Shepherd said she was grateful to local businesses for hosting the bins.
"They certainly helped spread the drop off options and increase voter turnout."
• Before the cut-off on Saturday at noon, the council will host another drop-in at the Gore Library today from 5-7pm, and another drive-through voting drop-off on Saturday from 9am until noon.
Progress results are expected to start coming through from 2pm on Saturday.
